2 February: the crêpe day!

What happened yesterday? 40 days after Christmas, Belgium celebrated Candlemas. The Bar du Marché, next to Flagey, offered free crêpes to all who came!

The crêpes are of course not a traditional Belgian dish! Anyway, yesterday was Candlemas day. This day is celebrated all over the World, although every country has different traditions. In Belgium and France, Candlemas is actually a “crêpe day”. People are indeed used to meeting and eating dozens of crêpes at night. Good news: you could have grabbed some for free in Brussels yesterday! Bad news: if you are currently reading this article, you have probably missed this opportunity which happens only once a year!

Brussels is quite famous for the thousands of events you can attend and eat (and drink) for free at the end. As a “crêpe day”, it sounds normal to eat some for free. The Bar du Marché, few meters away from Flagey, played the game and offered free crêpes to everyone from 4.00 to 7.00 pm. Dozens of people were therefore queueing to grab one, with Nutella or sugar.

“The bar has been taken over two years ago. Since that time, we have been organising this event every year, as a gift to our clients. Offering crêpes is a way to thank them for coming all the year long”, said Edouard, the manager. “Although it is quite hard to know how many are coming, it is always successful. As you can see, there are lots of people on the line. Half of them take a coffee or a beer and half of them only grab a crepe and then go”, he added.

Some people indeed came and left few minutes later, after they got a crêpe. “We did not really know this bar before. We just came once with friends to take some drinks. But we saw this event on Facebook a couple of days ago. So, the plan is to take several crêpes and then leave”, Chris and George said. But as mentioned, eating crêpes for free required patience. “We often come to the Bar du Marché. We are here today for the event, but we have eaten nothing so far, as the line is quite long. It is actually more an excuse to pop down and have some drinks”, Juliette and Corentin said.

Although many people did not have a beer, it attracts Brusselians. “There are regular clients of course, but we saw new people. This is not bad, people are coming and they discover the place. As we basically are a night bar, it is then a way to make it a bit different”, Edouard stated.

If you have actually missed it yesterday, save the date: 2 February 2018 is coming soon!